Local Viewpoint - Stimulus Money

Gov. Mark Sanford has been going back and forth with the Obama administration to try to receive approval to accept the stimulus money and use it to pay down the state debt rather than using it for the projects that have been approved as part of the legislation.

We appreciate that the Governor is consistent with his view on this topic, and we also agree that there is merit to his idea. We are not in favor of creating more debt. However, this ship has already sailed. The money has been approved, so regardless of whether or not Gov. Sanford thinks it is right to take it, we - you and me - are going to be responsible for paying it back. So if I have to pay back the money, I definitely want our state to get some benefit from it.

In our local view, Gov. Sanford should accept the money and put it to good use. We are near the top of the list in unemployment, and the people of South Carolina could benefit from this injection of money into the system. These are unique circumstances we are facing, and this funding could help offset some of the challenges we are facing.

Governor, it's time to do the right thing. Accept the money and get it into the system so we can start seeing some of the benefits. This is one more tool we can all use to help Reject the Recession.